Of Light and Shadow
by Ryder1478
Summary: Zed finds himself in a peculiar position. For the first time in many years he needs someone who can give him answers. See the tale unfold an where the answers bring him... Author's Note: I'm afraid i won't be continueig this story now, I seem to have run out of ideas I can use here, so I'll give it a break, at the very least.
1. Prolouge

Author's note: Well, i tried something here, is my first fanfiction, and i want to make a longer story,so i started with this chapter as a prolouge, hope you enjoy :) please leave a review with tipps and any criticism you have

* * *

Zed stood in the shadows of one of the pillars in the entry hall of the Institute of War. It was a huge hall, and it was decorated with all kinds of adornments, from ancient weapons and war banners to juwels and gold. The light of the full moon that hung in the night sky shone through the high glass windows that were situated high up on the walls, though they looked like doors droom a hallway. Directly opposite the great double doors that lead outside to the Institute's grounds was a large stair that lead upward, farther into the official rooms of the Institute. Two doors, about halfway down the walk between the entry door and the stairs and either side of the walkway led out of the hall. It wasn't very suprising, the vast room was built to impress kings and lords in all of Valoran.

All this beauty was, however, lost on Zed. He was waiting for someone he knew would show up, she always did when the full moon was high in the sky. Today, for te first time in many years, since he fell out with the kinkou order, since he killed Shen's father and took the temple for his own, he had the need to speak to someone. He heard the door on the right of the hallway open, the one that lead to the champions quarters, and someone walking down the hall. She'd taken longer than usual. He was about to step forward when she spoke: "Why do you hide in the shadows?"

He froze, she couldn't have detected him, noone ever had, but he was also sure that there was noone else in the entry hall. "I was waiting for you" someone else answered, a female voice, and he knew it well. '_Akali'_ he thought, '_what is she doing here'_. He'd heard her voice from his left, so he quickly changed places with a shadow in the corner on the other side of the entry door. After his travel through the darkness, which lasted only brief moments, h could see both Akali and Diana, whom he was waiting for, standing facing each other. Zed could feel the tension where he was standing, but suddenly the smiled at each other an embraced.

'_Interesting, since when are those two friends?' _Zed watched them as the walked out of the hall. He knew that Diana always watched the full moon, but he'd never seen Akali join her. He contemplated on following them, but discarded the idea, Akali might not notice him if he stood here, in the shadows, in his domain, but she was skilled enough in the art of the shadows to know when someone followed her.

"Didn't i ask you not to follow me when I'm out speaking to the moon?" Diana asked, but she sounded pleased either way.

"I didn't follow you, i waited" Akali flashed her a quick grin. "And anyway, i wanted to talk to you again, we barely ever do."

"I know, but you know that the Solari might not be to friendly to the Kinkou if they found out we were friends. And especially know, when the Kinkou are trying to get the Solari to help in the situation Iona is in with Noxus right now, that wouldn't be all to helpful."

Zed waited for them to be out of the hallway before slowly following them to the door. '_I thought Noxus' Invasion was forbidden by the Institute, what could be the problem that the Kinkou need the help of the Solari for?'_ When Zed reached the doors he stood in the open doorway for a moment, looking for the figures of Akali and Diana. He saw them sitting on the grass in front of the Institute, maybe 10 yards away from a tree. Zed smiled '_Perfect'_. He quickly teleported into the shadows of the tree to listen in on their conversation.

"It's been to long since we could do this, just sit here in the grass and watch the moon." This was Diana, as always reveling in the light of the moon.

"Yes, it really has, i wish we could do it more often." Zed had never heard Akali talk about something she misses, and he was suprised by it.

As the moon climbed higher into the clear night sky, Diana and Akali talked, about unimportant things mostly, about friends, family, their league matches. And all that time Zed stood patiently in the shadows of the tree, listening.

* * *

Finally, after some hours Akali stood up. By the position of the moon Zed estimated the time to be about 4 in the morning. "Well, I'd better get going, Shen'll rip my head off if Im even a minute to late to practice, and it starts in less than 30 minutes. Sometimes I wonder who is more mad, him or Ziggs."

Diana let out a giggle that didn't fit her personality at all. "Well, I wouldn't say that, Ziggs is way more sane than Shen"

Now Akali let out a snort of laughter "Watch out, he might hear you."

"Who, Ziggs, or Shen?"

"Both, then they both have a point to make!"

Now both Diana and Akali were rolling on the grass, giggling uncontrolably, and even Zed had trouble supressing a smile. Akali and Diana got up, and, together, made their way back to the entrance. Zed looked down, and saw that the light of the moon was shining on his left foot, just on the very tip, but he was still somehow intruged by it. Up at the entrance, Diana turned around one last time, and looked at the moon. Zed looked back up jsut in time to see her head snap in his direction. He couldn't tell what she was thinking from this direction, but he reacted immediately, teleporting into one of the many shadows of the entry hall, just as Diana blasted the tree under which he stood only a moment before with a ray of moonlight.


	2. Chapter 1

3 weeks later

* * *

For Zed, not much had changed. His matches in the League went fairly normal, and though he had feared, Diana obviously hadn't recognized him as the one eavesdropping on Akali and her, for the few times he'd met he in the corridors of the Institute, she hadn' even cared he was there. He knew he couldn't talk to her in the Institute, too many would be watching, and he couldn't talk to her outside under the full moon. Then she'd definately recognize him as the one she'd tried to blast with moonlight. He'd have to find someone else to give him answers. There were 2 options he could go for, one was Diana'S Archnemisis Leona, and the other, was Ryze. Known to have a vast library filled with ancient scrolls, Ryze would definately have the answer to his problem, or at least he would find it, so Zed decided it would be him.

Zed left his quarters in the east wing of the Institute, and walked through the long, straight halls of the buildings towards Ryze's Library, which was in the First Corridor of the East Wing, with his study, in which he kept his most valuable books and scrolls, in a small tower over it. On the way there he saw Akali, Kennen and Shen talking in one of the many courtyards of the Institute. He knew it couldn't be anything important, they always held the important discussions in one of their private apartments each champion (with some exceptions) had.

As he turned the corner to the First Corridor, he saw an apprentice summoner leaving Ryze's library, and locking the door. He quickly closed the distance and tapped the summoner on the shoulder. He was so suprised that he hadn't heard anybody approach that he whipped around, and raised his hand as if to fire a spell. Recognizing Zed, he immediately took the hand down.

" Never. Do. That. Again." He gasped.

"Is Ryze in there?" Zed asked, not wanting to waste time.

"Professor Ryze" the apprentice said. "Is not here. He's down in the summoning prisons, in the catacombs."

"What would Ryze be doing down there?"

"I wouldn't know, I'm only his assisstant."

"Hmpff." Zed turned and walked towards the entry hall, intending to go to Ryze down in the catacombs.

The apprentice behind him opened his mouth to call after Zed, but then, remembering who he was talking to, only muttered:"You're welcome."

* * *

When Zed reached the door to the catacombs, which were to the left of the stairs in the entry hall, he could feel the damp air come up from the stairwell that lead down. He knew that Malphite and Skarner live down here in their chambers. He headed down the stair well that went down the center of a large cave. The cave was big and circular, it had 10 summoning chambers along the northern side, in one of them Fiddlesticks was imprisoned, and the others were only used for practice reasons, now that the summoning towers were built. On the southern side, there were 2 exits, one leading straight to Malphite's chamber, the other leading towards the gem chambers. here the Institute made crystals and gems, most of magical nature, of many reasons. Some crystals simply gave of light, others were looking glasses woth which you could see anything that was touched by light.  
Beyond that lay the Summoning Prison. It was here that Brand, Nocturne, Cho'Gath and others were imprisoned. And that was where Zed was headed.

He found Ryze bending over the runes etched around one of the niches holding the nexus fragments in which the beasts were imprisoned.'_I always wondered where Ryze disappeared to so often. Seems he's resaerching these runes.'_

"Ryze, I need to talk"

"Not now, master of shadows, I'm busy." Just like Ryze to not be very polite while talking. Not that Zed was either.

"It's important."

"Well then." Ryze stood up, looking at Zed. "What is it?"

"..."

"Get on already, haven't got all day!"

"I need all your scrolls on light and shadow."

"'On light and shadow', hmmm... let me think a moment."

As Ryze was standing in front of the niche he had been inspecting earlier, sometimes muttering about scrolls he might have, Zed looked around the chamber, and his eyes fell on one of the other niches, this one's nexus fragment had a dark tint, almost black. He felt something touch his mind.

_'On light and shadow? Are you leaving the darkness for the light? are you as weak as all the others?'_

_'Begone, Nocturne! I do not need your advice!'_

_'I can tell you all about darkness and light, how light is too weak, how darkness will overpower the world! I will be free, and then, I will remember my friends, Zed'_

_'There is nothing you have I could wa...'_

"Alright," Zed was ripped from the mental conversation with Nocturne by Ryze calling him to attention. "I should have the books and scrolls you want, but it's a large topic, could you narrow it down?"

"Hm? Oh..." Zed had to think for a moment. "The way light and shadows stand to eachother."

Suddenly, Ryze looked at Zed completely different, as if someone else stood before him. "I see, meet me tomorrow, in my library, one hour after noon. I should be able to help you."

* * *

"Akali! Kennen! You should hear this." Shen's indifferent voice called across the hallway. He Akali and Kennen were in the Ionian practice rooms, and Shen had gone to one of the call crystals in the room. When Akali and Kennen joined him, he said to the image of Ryze on the crystal:"Alright professor, please repeat what you said."

"We need to meet. Something has happened, and I thought it important to inform you. If you could, i would like you to meet with me tomorrow, at noon in my library. I'll tell you exactly what I mean when you're here. I must ask you though, not to speak to anyone of this. It wouldn't be helpful if everyone knew of this."

"Professor, " Akali asked. "Might I ask, what this something is about?"

"For now, suffice to say it is about balance."

The image on the crystal flickeres, then disappeared. The 3 looked at eack other.

"Well, i can't wait to get to know what that was about." Kennen was already moving around again as soon as the conversation was over.

"We'll find out tomorrow, little one" Akali said.

"You know i don't like you calling me 'little one.'"

"And you know..."

"... that she won't stop. Come on, we need to keep working."

* * *

**Author's note: I hope this isn't a too long and boring chapter, so please: read and review**

**btw: I right and upload these chapters as i think them up, so the upload rate might be inconsistant**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2, here goes...**

* * *

Zed turned came through the door leading onto Corridor 1 from the Champion Quarters B, right next to Ryze's library, and almost collided with Diana, who was standing behind the door, gazing at the banners hanging from the wall opposite the library.

"There's so many of them... Bandle city, Freljord, all the clans, the Kinkou, the Solari... and only I have none." She kept muttering to herself, but she became quieter, so Zed only heard an incoherent stream of words.

Suddenly, she turned to Zed, her eyes and the symbol on her forhead shining with a silvery light, something he saw often enough on the fields, but never in the Institute.

_'Whats happening now? She seems so distant'_

"There is something coming, Master of Shadows, a change, a change that will resound throughout Valoran, even throughout Runeterra."

"What? Diana, wake up!"

She blinked, and the glow of her eyes and the symbol was gone. She looked at Zed and spoke, now in her normal voice: "I do not know what was spoken to you, it was for you, so do not ask."

_'Why would she not care if someone spoke __**through**__ her? She hates being controled.'_

Zed looked at the wall they were standing in front of. "What were you saying about the banners just a moment ago?"

"I said nothing."

Zed looked at her, but her face showed nothing, so Zed changed tack: "Why are you here? The champions are gathering in the courtyard, aren't they?"

"I was asked to meet Ryze. He wanted to talk to me."

_'What? Now? Is he planning on telling everyone?!'_

"How convinient, so am I."

They stand in silence, gazing at the banners and the other decorations along the corridor. When Zed's gaze fell on the banners of Noxus and Demacia, displayed side by side, proudly, almost like two brothers, who were'nt so different like they thought. His thoughts then went to old friends lost, but not to death. His actions had cost him friends, friends who are now his enemies. They had tried to send him to his death, but he alone had learned to trick death, to melt away when he couldn't win.

"It's the 13. hour. Time to meet with the professor."

Zed glanced at Diana. "Lets see what he wants us for" he agreed with her.

* * *

"Aaaah, you two are here, good, good." Ryze was sitting in his library, his desk covered with books and scrolls, one large one unrolled in the middle of them all. Around the desk, and down an aisle through the entire room, shelves full of scroll holders, most filled with scrolls, reached up to the ceiling, each equipted with a ladder that could be rolled along the shelf to reach any scroll you wanted. Strangely enough, the only scroll Zed had expected to see, as always, was nowhere to be found. The scroll on Ryze's back was missing.

Zed decided to cut straight to the point. "So, you have the scroll i wanted?"

"Hm? Yes yes." He didn't elaborate, but kept gazing at the scroll on the desk intently, so Zed tried again.

"Would you give them to me?"

"Ah, yes, there's a little problem with that... I can't give it to you, really, but i can tell you what you want to know."

"Professor," Diana spoke, who had, until then, just been standing by. "What did you want me here for?"

"I think Zed can answer that question. Zed, what did you want scrolls on again?"

"On Light and Shadow, but... oh."

_'On LIGHT, he had the same idea i had'_

"Why," Diana started. "Would the Master of Shadows want to learn something on light?"

"Because, of this." Ryze said, pointing at the large scroll, which was covered over and over with runes, with a free square in the center, on which were imprinted a few lines of writing lines of runes. As Ryze mumbled a few words, the writing glowed with blue magical energy, the same energy that sometimes lighted Ryze's rune tattoos in the fields.

"This, this is your scroll..." Diana was in awe. Noone had ever, ever seen Ryze's scroll open.

"Aye, but this is important, so focus!"

The runes had changed into modern writing, and it said:

**_The balance will come, brought by two brothers from beyond the Sea,  
_****_The one for justice, the other for light, the only whose eyes truely see_**

_'Two brothers from beyond the sea... balance, light, shadows... Impossible...'  
_

"No, it definately is not. This scroll does not lie." Zed hadn't noticed that he'd said the last word out loud, but Ryze's comment brought him back.

"Then you must be mistaken."

"Wait," again, Diana spoke up. "What two brothers? And what about balance to justice and light?"

Suddenly, out of the shadows a voice, completely level, spoke: "You should tell her Zed. We will need her."

Zed and Diana whirled around, to see Shen standing right behind them. Ryze just kept looking at the writing around the edges of the scroll. "Didn't I ask you to wait?"

"You did, but he needs to tell her." His gaze was unwavering behind his mask.

"It is no longer the truth Shen, and you know it!" Zed spat out.

"I know it already."

"WHAT?!" Both Zed and Shen were suprised.

"You two were brothers who trained together under the moon. What the moon sees, it can tell me. Some weeks ago, when I was sitting outside, it told me of you two. It wanted me to be warned of something coming that would change Valoran forever."

"It speaks of you 2. You must find a way to bring balance, to light and shadow, to justice."

"Ha!" Zed started. "I have nothing to do with light!"

"And why did you want the scrolls?"

_'Sometimes Ryze is to smart for his own good.'_

"I don't have a brother." Zed staed flatly, not looking at Shen in the process.

"Yes you do, whether you want to or not. I am trained to restore balance, and keep it, and I will do what I must to achieve that goal."

"Shen, you always were thickheaded." Shen let the comment pass. "Anyway," Zed turned to Ryze, "light and shadow are in balance already."

"No, actually they aren't. The Kinkou are having trouble keeping beings like Nocturne at bay. They have trouble finding their source, and have asked me to help find some way to imprison them that doesn't take a nexus fragment, or as much energy that we use to keep Nocturne in the summoning prisons. Why do you think I'm gone for so long looking at the prisons?"

"So thats why the Kinkou need the help of the Solari, sunlight to fight the dark."

"Yes, but only one can keep darkness at bay, and he must be a master, not only of Shadows, but also of Light. YOu must go to Ionia. Fast."

"The Ionians will attack me on sight. I will have to go to my temple, and there, shadow preveils."

"No, they won't. I'm coming with you." Zed stared at Shen, and started to disagree.

"Oh no, you thi..."

"And I'm coming too." Now Zed glared back and forth between Shen and Diana, hoping to stare them down, but Shen's mask showed nothing, and Diana stared right back. "You'll need someone who nows about light."

Finally Zed relented. "Alright, we start tomorrow at daybreak. Be ready."

* * *

**Author's note: okay, chapter 2 again, read, write reviews, and enjoy**

**thanks to rogizo, he's writing stories himself and i asked him to take a look at mine here, and his are pretty coll, check them out.**


	4. Chapter 3

It was one hour before sunrise the next day, and Zed stood on a hilltop about one mile out from the Institute, watching the moon set, and, for once in many years, making no attampt to hid from the light.

_'This _'quest'_ won't end well, there is no balance between light and shadow, and I could not bring it, even if it were possible.'_

As Zed followed his thoughts, he turned towards the Institute, seeing somone standing at the ridge near the entrance, also gazing at the moon. Zed smiled, he thought he knew who that was. He used the shadows under the trees to jump towards the ridge, coming out of the treeline he greeted Diana, who stood looking away.

"You up so soon?"

Diana turned around, startled. She relaxed once she recognized Zed. "No, I couldn't sleep. So why not come out early?"

Zed grunted in reply, then turned toward the setting moon.

"Why were you listening 3 weeks ago?" Diana asked suddenly.

"Hmmm, what? Oooh..." Suddenly Zed remembered his eavesdropping on Akali and Diana.

_'What how does she know? Wait, my foot!'_ He looked down at the moonlight on his foot, and went to answer, but hesitated. Instead, he took a different approach.

"Wait, so no beam of moonlight to kill me this time?"

"I didn't know it was then, but now I do. So I can still do it if your answer isn't sufficient."

"Ah" Zed said, but didn't elaborate. Finally, after a long silence he said: "I was wanting to talk to you. I had questions."

"About?"

"About this 'Light' stuff. I thought you might have answers."

Diana looked at Zed with a raised eyebrow, but didn't push him. Together the watched the sun rise, and then Zed heard the door to the entry hall open. They turned around to see Shen, Ryze and Taric come out.

Zed greeted Shen with a nod, and then turned to Ryze and Taric.

"Professr, Taric, what are you doing here?"

"Zed," Ryze answered, and Zed noticed he'd said his name, not his title. "I asked Taric to give you something new we are working on in the Crystal Caverns."

"Well then, I think I should explain these." Taric took out three gems, that looked like the viewing orbs the champions used to talk with each other.

"They look like our viewing crystals, the ones we use to talk to each other from our apartments, or to our friends at home." Diana was looking at the gems with interest.

"Yes, they do. But they are slightly different." Taric started to explain. "While your viewing crystals will allow you to talk to champions, friends at home, or even watch matches, they need set lines to work. For example, you couldn't call a friend who's not near a stationary relay crystal. With these, you can, theoretically, talk with everyone who has one of these anywhere. But they aren't really done yet, so they aren't fully reliable. But they're better than nothing."

He handed Shen Diana and Zed one each, then stepped back.

"Well, I wish you luck on your journey." With that, he turned and went back inside the Institute.

* * *

**Authors note: Okay, short, but good, or something like that. As always, read, write reviews, and so on.  
**

**Now to a guest review, yes, i'm absolutely aware of how rediculous this storyline actually is, but its a fanFICTION of a FANTASY game, why shouldn't it be absolutely ridiculous? and to Zed not having any character, it is my first fanfic, so I'm trying to get the hang of that and I hope it'll get better.**

**P.S. I don't want to make the chapter shorter, i just wanted to upload something so you know I'm still here**


End file.
